The Brief 18-year-old Tyler Burrel faces a state jail felony charge for allegedly posing as a woman on Snapchat to catfish a former acquaintance. After obtaining an explicit video from the victim under false pretenses, Burrel allegedly shared the footage with the victim's friends. Traced to the UH campus by cyber-investigators, Burrel is currently out on a $20,000 bond while detectives review evidence pointing to potential additional victims.



An 18-year-old University of Houston student is facing felony charges after investigators say he spent months catfishing a peer online, obtaining explicit media, and leaking it to the victim's friends.

A relationship under false pretenses

According to detectives, 18-year-old suspect Tyler Burrel created a fake Snapchat profile posing as a woman. Using the fraudulent persona, Burrel targeted an 18-year-old male victim, building an online relationship with him over a six-month period.

Investigators revealed a disturbing twist in the case: the suspect and the victim were not strangers-they apparently knew each other from high school. Unaware that he was being catfished by someone from his past, the victim sent an intimate video of himself to the profile.

The situation escalated when Burrel allegedly leaked the explicit footage directly to the victim's group of friends. Upon discovering the leak and the deception, the victim reported the incident to authorities.

 Online, anybody can be anyone,  said Carlos Sandoval, the lead detective on this case with Harris County Precinct 5.  We need people to really think twice before they send something that they'll later regret. But, you know, between agencies, we share information and we're able to track suspects down. 

Digital footprint leads investigators to campus arrest

The Harris County Constable Precinct 5 High Tech Crimes Unit spearheaded the investigation. Cyber-investigators successfully traced the suspect's digital footprint directly to the University of Houston campus, where Burrel was subsequently taken into custody.

Burrel was booked on a state jail felony charge of unlawful disclosure of i
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